Angel
by star bunny
Summary: Set between ANH and ESB. Vader is reminded of a conversation he had years ago.


Hi! This is my first Star Wars fic... it's a lot harder than I thought to switch genres like that. :) This is set between ANH and ESB, but it refers to a scene in TPM. It's pretty self-explanitory. I know it's a really short, but short seems to be all that I can write recently!  
  
Angel  
By: Star Bunny (bunny28@hehe.com)  
Rated: PG  
  
  
He couldn't do it.  
  
No matter what the consequences once the Emperor found out, he just couldn't do it. For years he had lived in denial that his past had even existed, and he wasn't about to face it now... because if he faced it now, he wasn't sure that he would survive it.  
  
Ever since the destruction of the Death Star, the Emperor had been rabidly searching for the pilot who had fired the shot. Millions and millions of spies and probe droids had been sent out into the abyss to search for the elusive pilot. Finally, after much searching, they had at last discovered his name: Luke Skywalker.  
  
That in itself had been a shock to him, because it meant that the pilot was his son... his son who was very much alive, and very much a threat to his well-being.  
  
Now, after even more months of searching, they had found a lead. Skywalker had recently visited the Moons of Iego and might have left a clue as to where he was next headed. So the Emperor wanted him, Darth Vader, Sith Lord and the second most feared being in the galaxy, to follow his son's trail to the Moons of Iego.  
  
But he couldn't do it!  
  
And what a wimp he had become, that he was frightened of the people of Iego! No. That wasn't right. He was not frightened of them. He was frightened of the memories that they would evoke. For each time someone would mention the Moons of Iego, the same image would leap into his mind and cause him no end of trouble. It even haunted him now!  
  
"Are you an angel?"  
"What?"  
"An angel. I've heard the deep space pilots talk about them. They live on the Moons of Iego, I think. They are the most beautiful creatures in the universe. They are good and kind, and so pretty they make even the most hardened space pirate cry."  
"I've never heard of angels."  
"You must be one... maybe you just don't know it."  
  
Angel... She certainly had looked like one at that moment. She had been so beautiful! He had always pictured the "angels" of Iego to look just like her. Even now, as a hardened Sith Lord, he had never been able to forget just how beautiful she was. And if the angels of Iego did indeed look like her, he was sure that they would make him cry.  
  
But even worse! If they did not look like her... He couldn't imagine what it would be like if he went there and saw beautiful angels that looked nothing like her. It was his last dream, which he clung to with that last breath of hope. Everything else beautiful had been banished from his heart forever... but he would not allow himself to forget what a living and breathing and loving angel looked and felt like.  
  
For the past twenty years he had shoved that image to the very recesses of his soul, hidden from the Emperor, hidden from the galaxy, and most importantly of all, hidden from himself.  
  
It hurt so much to think about her! Vader had thought himself rid of any emotions, any leftover feelings from that past life. Yet he could not think of her without bringing up the old feelings of regret that he had felt the very first time he had betrayed her. Love meant nothing to the Dark Side of the Force. Neither loyalty, tenderness, nor friendship resided in his heart. But one mention of the angels of Iego sent him hurtling back to a time when the Force was just a myth and the Emperor did not exist. Back to his mother...  
  
Then, just as quickly as the feelings had surfaced, they were overcome by the immense hatred he now felt towards himself. How could he not hate himself? He had violated everything that he had ever believed in, everything that his mother had taught him, and hurt everyone who was dear to him. He hated himself, and that hate in turn fueled the fire for the evil nature that resided within him. Anakin Skywalker would never surface again, because he hated him too much. Darth Vader was supposed to be evil; Vader was made to be cruel and cunning. But Anakin should have been the perfect Jedi, the perfect son, and the perfect husband and father. He had ruined his dream life, and now he had to live with what he had made of himself.  
  
Vader quickly buried the tender feelings, even deeper than they had previously been. They were about to land on Iego, and he must prepare himself for the confrontation. He was here to find out where the son of Skywalker was hiding... and he would kill every last one of the angels if that were what it took.  
  
---  
  
Please review!  
  
Bunny ^_^ 


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